Time for some guitar music!

[bob_cart]

Since the guitar can be quite neglected in classical music sometimes and I dare to say I'm a classical guitarist myself (starting my 9th year in music school) I decided to make a little topic with/about guitar music. I'm going to start with an apsolute classic and the best recording of that classic that exists. It's Joaquin Rodrigo's very own Concierto De Aranjuez played by world famous flamenco guitarist Paco De Lucia. Though not a classical guitarist, Paco showed the true Spanish nature of this composition better than most players ever could. I also liked Petrit Čeku's version, a young guitarist from Kosovo whom I met once, showing a lot of promise.
https://www.youtube.com/v/RhO5OSLZjl8

Cheers!

P.S. I'd love if someone else posted their favourite guitar works here, the instrument needs the attention ^^

[bhodges]

Sharon Isbin's Nightshade Rounds has been one of my favorite guitar recordings for years. Love the Walton and Britten, especially.

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--Bruce

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

From what I hear on radio, It seems to me that classical guitar is enormously popular, and gets vastly more airtime than what it's limited repertoire would merit. In fact, I hear endless transcriptions of various works for guitar. I get really tired of it honestly. Not to bash the guitar (pretty much at the bottom of my list of instruments, but that's just me), but I think it has an easy sound that appeals to people who would otherwise hate--or at least be ambivalent about--classical music. That, and since many of the pieces are quite short, it appeals to classical music stations that (especially during the daytime hours) seem incapable of playing anything longer than five minutes in length.

BTW (not to be an even bigger d i c k), I think Miles Davis/Gil Evans treatment of Concierto is vastly more engaging than the original.

[bob_cart]

From what I hear on radio, It seems to me that classical guitar is enormously popular, and gets vastly more airtime than what it's limited repertoire would merit. In fact, I hear endless transcriptions of various works for guitar. I get really tired of it honestly. Not to bash the guitar (pretty much at the bottom of my list of instruments, but that's just me), but I think it has an easy sound that appeals to people who would otherwise hate--or at least be ambivalent about--classical music. That, and since many of the pieces are quite short, it appeals to classical music stations that (especially during the daytime hours) seem incapable of playing anything longer than five minutes in length.

BTW (not to be an even bigger d i c k), I think Miles Davis/Gil Evans treatment of Concierto is vastly more engaging than the original.

Where do I start? From my point of view and on the radio in my country, classical guitar is not as popular as other instruments,  but perhaps that was a bit unconsidered since Croatia isn't really the centre of Earth. I'd say that guitar gets bad reputation because there are loads of players in the world and a lot, actually most of them, are mediocre, more frankly: bad players just trying to commercialize the music to make money. I also think (not attacking you, just my opinion) that having a list of favourite instruments is not the way to go if you're a classical music listener. I do play the guitar but I do not claim or think that it's better than other instruments. If you disregard the music because you don't like the instrument than I wonder if you even understand the music. Though sometimes you can't make yourself like something, you should, at least, give it a shot. Good music is good music no matter the instrument, though it is harder to find it on some instruments than others. And it's very capable of playing longer pieces though a lot of them are short, true. The radio people sometimes not knowing what's good music doesn't mean that it's the only music that exists. And the Miles Davis/Gil Evans version is very nice, I enjoyed it, though I wouldn't compare it with the original since it's quite different from it in many ways. Good music is good music. I hope it didn't sound as if I was defending my point of view or attacking yours, just wanted to share my line of thought and I'd love to get a reply. I appricate your honesty ^^

[Brian]

I will start by saying I prefer the harp version of Concierto de Aranjuez.

BUT - I do love guitar music, and I often get to hear/write about the excellent guitar series on the Naxos label, which is produced & engineered by acclaimed guitarist Norbert Kraft and his wife Bonnie. More than almost any other classical music producer (Judith Sherman is outstanding), I consider the Kraft/Silver name a mark of the highest quality.

Here are a few fun examples - clicking on images leads to reviews I wrote -







A lot of that "Laureate Series" of young guitarists is really good. There is an interesting recent one which has selected songs by the King of Thailand!! (The King of Thailand has played saxophone with Benny Goodman and Stan Getz.)

Finally and on a really fun note, I love Leo Brouwer's arrangements of Beatles songs for guitar and string quartet!

[Rhymenoceros]

I love the classical guitar and have been learning to play it for 1 year.  Here are some favorite recordings:

A familiar Bach piece: BWV 1000
https://youtu.be/5l5nPi-SK2Y

A piece most people probably haven't heard before, Domeniconi's Koyunbaba
https://youtu.be/IT8wYIPlg_s

[North Star]

Villa-Lobos wrote some splendid solo guitar music, and some of his orchestral works feature the instrument as well, here the Introduction to Choros.
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Domeniconi's Koyunbaba is a modern classic
https://www.youtube.com/v/WO8q9tWp3OY

And for a splendid use of electric guitar, there's Gavin Bryars' After the Requiem
https://www.youtube.com/v/K3WPJRwZ5pU

[Klaze]

I've been playing for 6/7 years now, but will readily admit that I play far more than listen to guitar music.

Strangely I relatively quickly burn out on listening to solo guitar, as compared to solo piano or other genres.

Besides the famous guitar pieces by composers like Walton, Martin, Britten, Takemitsu etc., I like guitar-composers like Ponce, Llobet, Villa-Lobos, Barrios, Torroba.

When playing, Giuliani and Sor also get a lot of time, but I rarely actively listen to their music.

And of course Bach, Weiss, Scarlatti, de Visee are great to play (the easy pieces atleast ) and listen to on the guitar.

[Dax]

Malcolm arnold guitar concerto, particularly in this performance from 1959 (Julian Bream + Melos Ensemble conducted by Arnold).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT3tF-JlAMk

[bob_cart]

Thanks for the music guys! A lot of good works here ^^ I'd like to share another one for you guitar fans, when I found out about this one I had to listen to it all the time, hope you like it:
https://www.youtube.com/v/zIIuUZYQbWs

[Artem]

This thread inspired me to purchase this CD, which is pretty good. I only listened to Carter and Riley pieces once so far, but Carter sounded very interesting.

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[7/4]

Anders Miolin, Claude Debussy

[San Antone]

Britten : Nocturnal After John Dowland, op.70

https://www.youtube.com/v/XRBSSNptIf0

[Mirror Image]

Of course, Takemitsu wrote some great guitar music with and w/o orchestra. Another favorite is Villa-Lobos' Guitar Concerto. I also love Sculthorpe's Nourlangie. If you haven't heard any of these works, then do check them out. Great stuff.